Jules' Change of Direction
by Sewtunes
Summary: A post-Fault Lines story. After the interviews with Dr. Toth, Jules does some heavy thinking. Second chapter contains Sam's thoughts between the morning's evaluations and Jules arriving at his door.
1. Chapter 1

Jules POV after the interview with Dr. Toth in _Fault Lines_.

Disclaimer: You should know that I write solely for my pleasure and your enjoyment. The characters are not mine; they were created by the producers of _Flashpoint_ and about a half dozen other entities affiliated with the production of the TV series. They belong to those people. I just take them out and play with them occasionally. Or is it let them play with each other? The situations and descriptions in this story belong to me using characters borrowed from _Flashpoint_.

Once the Team had been dismissed by Holleran after the stressful day of requalifying exams, both psychological and tactical skills, Jules dressed quickly, hurried out of the SRU and headed home in her Jeep.

While driving, she reviewed her conversation with Sam that took place in the hallway after their psyche evaluations. She had to be honest with herself and accept that she still loved Sam. She couldn't just will those feelings to go away. Ending the relationship with him two years ago had not banished those feelings either, no matter how she tried to bury them. She'd been able to tamp them down and ignore them for awhile, but Toth's interrogation had resurrected them. It was during his questioning that she realized two things: the love she felt for Sam wasn't going to go away and she was tired of sacrificing it for the job. The job no longer came first. Other things were more important.

During the previous two years of fooling herself that this thing with Sam was over, Jules had tried to forget how very good they were together. It amazed her how one interrogation by Dr. Toth had so easily resurrected the strong feelings she had for Sam. Feelings she thought she'd buried but had only ignored. Emotions that had never gone away. If she were ruthlessly honest with herself, she would admit that she still felt a frisson of electricity whenever he was near. She could always tell when he was studying her. She knew every nuance of the emotions running through him when he'd give her tortured looks at work. She was tired of ignoring her true emotions about the man.

Jules was not usually into self-deception. If anything, she was rigorous in her acceptance of hard truths about herself, her job and her life. It was time to re-examine her feelings for Sam and decide what to do about them. Should she renew the relationship-if Sam was willing? Or continue to ignore it. Heavy thoughts to contemplate on the remainder of the drive home. Her heart was screaming one thing to her while her mind was still trying to reel her back to reason.

By the time she'd pulled her Jeep up the drive and parked, she knew what her heart was telling her to do. This time she was going to listen to that heart and not her head which was warning her plan of action could backfire in so many ways. What if Sam had moved on? What if they resumed their relationship and it were discovered and one or both of them had to leave the Team? In her mind and heart, she had finally accepted that Sam was worth it. No job was worth the loss of a love like theirs. It may have taken her two years to come to terms with that sentiment, but it only took two minutes to begin preparations to decide on a course of action to get him back and to implement that plan.

She hurried inside her house and up the stairs to rummage in the back of her closet searching for that one sleeveless blue dress she knew was there somewhere. The one that made her feel feminine and pretty, especially after a day in uniform when she looked like just one of the guys.

She finally found the dress, its hanger stuck to another. She untangled them and removed the dress, then dug into a drawer for the short white sweater to keep her arms warm during the chilly evening hours. She also dug around in her lingerie drawer looking for some sexy underwear to reinforce her desire to feel feminine.

Used to dressing quickly for work, it only took moments to slide off her jeans and functional undies and slip into the sexy ones and the blue dress. She applied a bit of make-up, brushed out her hair and let it fall in waves around her shoulders. Sam always liked her hair down when they weren't at work. She slid her feet into heels and felt as ready as she could to face Sam. Armed with her entire feminine arsenal, she left her bedroom behind and walked down the stairs.

Confronted with her front door, she took a moment to draw in a deep breath and confirm that she was ready to face Sam again. It was time to admit to them both that she'd made a mistake two years ago. She only hoped she could fix it now, that he would be willing to forgive and forget and move on.

All the way over to Sam's apartment, she had second and third thoughts. Her final opportunity to bail on this plan came as she lifted her hand to knock on his door, the number 1008 staring back at her. She paused briefly. She could turn around right now and he'd never know she'd been there. She inhaled deeply, chiding herself for being chicken. She was almost certain Sam would be happy to see her. Quickly before her brain could rule her actions, Jules rapped on Sam's door and waited for it to open.

He was home. The door opened and she faced Sam, this time as his former girlfriend, not his teammate. They'd only left work a couple of hours ago but it seemed longer.

She stared into his eyes waiting for him to say something. Uh oh, not good. So far she could see no reaction on his face. He stared at her for long seconds, and then he finally stepped aside to allow her to enter. He took his time shutting the door as though wondering why she was here. For an eternity, she worried that she'd made a mistake in coming.

He turned to face her. In a husky voice, his first words were: "You were right."

Right? "About what?" she questioned softly, nearly breathless, still staring into his blue eyes and willing him to show some sign of welcome. He hadn't closed the door in her face, so that was good, right?

He took a couple of slow steps toward her and replied, "It's not gonna go away." After a pause, he added, "So..."

Her voice echoed softly, "So?" Then his eyes dropped to her mouth. She felt the electricity arc between them as he leaned in and began kissing her. For Jules, this was what she'd been waiting for and missing. Mere seconds later, the kiss between them became more urgent and passionate as they tasted each other. Roaming hands explored familiar bodies. She was lifted onto the kitchen counter. He stepped between her legs which she wrapped around him. The passion and roaming hands continued to build urgently until it was rudely interrupted by the arrival of a tall blond opening his door and walking in unannounced. An exclamation of "Oh Wow" was heard from the blond. With a wounded expression on her face, Jules looked from the girl back to Sam as she hopped down off the counter and made a hasty exit from the apartment.

All the way back to her car, she wondered just what she thought she had been doing in approaching Sam again. How could she have been so stupid? "Dumb, dumb, dumb," she thought to herself. Apparently he had moved on even though she and the Team were unaware of it. She had trouble understanding why he would have invited her in and initiated that steamy kiss that felt like a homecoming to her. Her lips still tingled from the feel of his. Her body still felt his roving hands. She still thrummed with arousal. She was also shocked and angry. Angry at Sam for allowing her entry to his apartment if he was seeing someone and anger at herself for being so bold without a reason.

Before she could begin to process those last moments in Sam's apartment, her cell phone buzzed with an incoming message. Team One was being recalled to duty. She had to temporarily put aside all thoughts of Sam and his girl and get her mind back on work. The 10-33 Officer Down message blew all thoughts of Sam and her problems out of her mind as she raced back to the SRU with more urgent things to think about.

Upon arriving back at headquarters she'd learned that the officer down was her teammate Ed Lane. At that point, she had to concentrate on the job. She had to set aside any feelings she had when she and Sam were again paired for the interviews at Downs View Military Base. When they had a few moments of privacy, she apologized to Sam for not thinking to ask if he was seeing someone. The relief was palpable when he explained that it was Natalie, his sister. She had to concentrate on the job, a task made much easier by her relief that Sam wasn't dating anyone after all.


	2. Sam's POV

When I published the first chapter of this story, a couple of you readers asked for Sam's POV on the same day. Here it is. While Jules is implementing her plan to go to Sam's apartment, he's at home trying to decide what to do to get her back.

Disclaimer: I write for my pleasure and I hope your enjoyment. The characters are not mine; they were created by the producers of _Flashpoint_ and apparently a half dozen other entities affiliated with the production of the TV series. They belong to those people. I just take them out and play with them occasionally. Or is it let them play with each other? The situations and descriptions in this story belong solely to me using characters borrowed from _Flashpoint_.

* * *

When Commander Holleran dismissed Team 1 after the long morning spent on re-evaluations and physical testing, the members scattered quickly. It seemed as though none of them wanted to hang around where the stress levels were so high. Sam took a quick shower in the changing room and headed for home as fast as he could. He wanted to be alone to think about that conversation in the hallway with Jules as well as the other emotions that Dr. Toth had awoken with his questions. From the expressions he'd seen on the faces of other Team members, he knew that each of them had also had traumatic questions thrown at them as well. Dr. Toth certainly knew how to open old scabbed over wounds. No one had escaped his probing.

Sam settled into a chair in his apartment with a magazine. While he was flipping pages, he wasn't really reading it. Instead he was reviewing the day, and other days, in his mind, going over everything. The one thing he couldn't let go of was Jules' comment about "it's not going to go away." In his mind, he hoped that meant that her feelings for him weren't going to go away. He sure hoped that's what she'd meant. It gave him hope that maybe they could find a way to be together again. Too bad his sister Natalie had shown up at his apartment last night. Getting back together with Jules could be more complicated with Nat around. But first he had to figure out a way to initiate a reunion with Jules.

He let his mind drift back more than two years to when he first saw her on his first day in Toronto. He'd just flown in after his exit interviews from the Army. He'd said good-bye to his parents and his military career and headed off for a different version of keeping the peace. He asked his driver to detour to city hall when he'd heard the breaking news story on the radio about a hostage situation. He arrived in time to see the resolution of the crisis. Then he'd seen this gorgeous brunette sniper exiting a building with her gear. While she was stowing it into the back of a big black SUV, he'd approached her and tried to pick her up. In hindsight, that was definitely not a smart move as the Team on scene was the very Team he was to join. But he smiled as he recalled the entire Team aiming their weapons at him when they thought he was carrying a gun. They had no clue who he was. Fortunately Commander Holleran arrived on scene and ordered them to stand down.

He joined the Team, full of himself and his tactical ideas. The army required tactics, not negotiation. The latter was very difficult for him to learn, but he was doing much better at it now. At least he hoped he was even though he'd definitely flunked the negotiation with Jules to keep seeing her secretly.

From his first day he had never stopped trying to pick up that sexy brunette sniper, and he finally caught her. She made him work for it, but she was worth it. Then she got shot on the job in that very plaza where he'd first seen her. That was the most painful event of his life, trying to stem the blood flowing from her wounds. It was even more painful than when he'd fired the shot that killed his best friend Matt in Kandahar. Because the Team was on the hunt for a sniper at City Hall, he had to go back to work and could not even accompany her to the hospital. He spent the rest of the call hoping and praying that she would still be alive when he finally got there. He was the last Team member to arrive since he had to go before the SIU review board first.

He idly turned pages in the magazine while recalling the hospital scene. When Sam arrived at Jules' room, most of the Team were outside in the hallway. Only Greg was in the room with Jules. He quickly exited when Sam entered. Sam didn't realize it at the time, but later he became aware that the entire Team had to have figured out that he and Jules were involved. It wasn't like he could keep his feelings a secret during that traumatic time. He'd broken down and shed tears over her unconscious form. When Jules recovered and returned to the Team, she broke it off with him to preserve her spot on the Team. He also hadn't wanted to leave the Team in order to keep her. It was a decision he continued to regret daily. Even though he pretended to move on, pretended that they were only colleagues and friends now, he knew in his heart that she was more to him, would always be more.

He stopped pretending to read the magazine when he recalled that evening in the coffee shop when he's been dumped. Sam had stood outside the entrance to the coffee shop where he'd just said goodbye to Jules, the coffee shop where she'd dumped him for her job. He'd known all day that this was talk was coming. Ed Lane had even called him on his attitude first thing that morning. What had surprised and stunned him the most was her admission that she loved him. Her exact words were: "I love you, but the job comes first." He shouldn't have been surprised that she would choose the job over him. After all, she would not have been the first female officer in the SRU without being single-minded about her job and her dedication to it. He just wished that he and their relationship had not become a casualty. Jules was the first and only woman he'd ever loved. High school relationships didn't count.

For the sake of the Team and Jules, he had to pretend he was dating and moving on after that. Yes, he had dated a few women, but none of them were Jules, and none of them lasted more than a few dates. Then he had to watch her with Steve, the paramedic from her high school. That really tore at his heart. But then today, Jules had said "it wasn't going to go away." Now it was up to him to decide how to follow up on that statement while hoping it meant what he hoped it meant. He had admitted before Toth, the Boss and that dang lie detector that yes, he would have continued the relationship secretly if he could have. Still a true statement. That desire wasn't going to go away either.

So now he had to figure out a way to convince Jules to give them another chance. He ran a few scenarios through his mind, but none of them seemed right. While he was trying to come up with a viable plan, he heard a knock at his door. Wondering who could possibly be there, he called out "Coming," and went to open the door. He was speechless when he saw Jules standing before him. She had a very uncertain expression on her face, but she was beautiful. And she was here. His heart stumbled over a beat or two before he moved aside to allow her entry. They just stared at each other. She still didn't say a word. He didn't want to say the wrong thing, but he said the first thing that came to mind anyway, "You were right."

"About what?" she whispered as she continued to stare at him.

"It's not going to go away," he responded huskily, silently thrilled that Jules had come back to him. He leaned in to kiss her. He did not want her getting away again.

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Author's note: I've pretty much already written the rest of this story from this point on in Sam's POV. You can find it in "Are you Sure?" in the M section. There's no need to rewrite the story when you can simply go there and read it.  s/9433205/1/Are-You-Sure


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